A new security in flaw in almost all versions of windows operating systems allows attackers to gain “complete control” of your computer.

The flaw affects all versions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 as well as Windows RT. This means that two out of every three computers running windows around the world are vulnerable. Microsoft suggests that everyone update their systems as soon as possible if you haven’t already got the update from this last Monday. In most situations Microsoft releases their patches or updates on Tuesdays, thus the term “Patch Tuesday” but this was top priority for the software developer so they issued an emergency update on Monday.

Microsoft says an attack could take place simply by visiting a web page or opening a document. This is because the vulnerability affected OpenType which is a widely used format for fonts.

This just goes to show how important updates are. You should always keep your system up to date and stay away from unknown or untrusted websites as much as possible.

Microsoft has credited the security company FireEye’s Genwei Jiang and Mateusz Jurczyk, part of Google’s Project Zero as the one’s who found the flaw and reported it.

Source: CNET Security
More info and complete list of affected operating systems can be found here.